Cornell Med School

[BlackSails]

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I noticed on their website that they explicitly say that graduating college is not required for applicant or matriculation. Does anyone know the rate on people applying as sophomores or juniors and getting in? I assume it would be low, but on the other hand, I dont imagine so many people trying.

 

[BigRedPremed]

Honestly, there's only a handful of people who don't have a bachelor's. 99-100% of people matriculating have bachelor's degrees. In any given graduating class of a med school, you might see 1-2 people not have a BS/BA degree (and probably due to some outstanding reason). We're not talking about early assurance or that kind of program here. We're talking about people who for whatever reason didn't finish college.

 

[BlackSails]

Honestly, there's only a handful of people who don't have a bachelor's. 99-100% of people matriculating have bachelor's degrees. In any given graduating class of a med school, you might see 1-2 people not have a BS/BA degree (and probably due to some outstanding reason). We're not talking about early assurance or that kind of program here. We're talking about people who for whatever reason didn't finish college.

Yes, but once you finish the prereqs and take the MCAT, you could technically apply. This could be done sophomore year, and you could matriculate 2 years early.

 

[Meatwad]

Yes, but once you finish the prereqs and take the MCAT, you could technically apply. This could be done sophomore year, and you could matriculate 2 years early.

If you apply with 60 credits, they aren't going to accept you unless you have something amazingly outstanding on your app, like BigRedPreMed said. This is because they know you aren't going to graduate for two years, and they want you to have a bachelor's, even f it's not a requirement.

 

[BigRedPremed]

Yes, but once you finish the prereqs and take the MCAT, you could technically apply. This could be done sophomore year, and you could matriculate 2 years early.

First of all, you would only be matriculating 1 year early since most people apply after their junior year. Secondly, it's pretty hard to satisfy ALL of the requirements in two years. Sure, you can take intro bio/gen chem/physics/orgo in two years. But you'd also have to squeeze in some math, biochem, some humanities/social sciences, English, etc. Oh yea, you'll have to condense 3-4 years' worth of EC's into 2 years.

Your options for med school would be extremely limited, not to mention, you'll be at a disadvantage compared with applicants with more substantial coursework and more life experience.

 

[gro2001]

Cornell's Qatar campus offeres a 2 year pre med program. You dont get a degree, but its all the prereqs and then some.

 

[BlackSails]

First of all, you would only be matriculating 1 year early since most people apply after their junior year. Secondly, it's pretty hard to satisfy ALL of the requirements in two years. Sure, you can take intro bio/gen chem/physics/orgo in two years. But you'd also have to squeeze in some math, biochem, some humanities/social sciences, English, etc. Oh yea, you'll have to condense 3-4 years' worth of EC's into 2 years.

Your options for med school would be extremely limited, not to mention, you'll be at a disadvantage compared with applicants with more substantial coursework and more life experience.

Its not that hard to finish all prereqs. At the end of this year (sophomore year), ill have all the prereqs done for both premed and my degree (except 2 more semesters of language.) Biochem is not a requirement for anyone coming from NYU. Biochem is only offered at a graduate level, and only (bio)chem majors can get into the grad level classes. I have humanities and english. I have pretty good ECs. However, I have not prepped for the MCAT.

 

[starlight04]

Head of Cornell Med admissions (Dr.Bardes) came to my undergrad to speak. Someone asked him how they felt about graduating early in terms of the admissions process, and Dr.Bardes explicitly stated that while it makes sense on some levels (trying to finish early, saving money), he said that he basically discourages graduating in 3 years unless you take some time off after undergrad to do something amazing. He said that graduating a semester early would not give you any advantage of disadvantage assuming you do something useful in your semester off.

It seems like in general, the trend of med school admissions is to accept older, more non-traditional students with more life experiences than the average kid out of undergrad. In my opinion, not getting an undergrad degree would be pretty detrimental to the average applicant, so unless you are phenomenally amazing (cured cancer, starvation, etc.), I think it would be a bad idea. There's no reason to be in such a hurry to go to med school. Enjoy your undergrad, have some fun, take some time to develop good EC's, and apply after your junior year.